Abstract
Operation of a CCD imager on a curved focal surface offers advantages to flat focal planes, especially for lightweight, relatively simple optical systems. The first advantage is that the modulation transfer function can approach diffraction-limited performance for a spherical focal surface employed in large field-of-view or large-format imagers. The second advantage is that a curved focal surface maintains more uniform illumination as a function of radius from the field center. Examples of applications of curved imagers, described here, include a small compact imager and the large curved array used in the Space Surveillance Telescope. The operational characteristics and mechanical limits of an imager deformed to a 15 mm radius are also described.
© 2015 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Brian Guenter, Neel Joshi, Richard Stoakley, Andrew Keefe, Kevin Geary, Ryan Freeman, Jake Hundley, Pamela Patterson, David Hammon, Guillermo Herrera, Elena Sherman, Andrew Nowak, Randall Schubert, Peter Brewer, Louis Yang, Russell Mott, and Geoff McKnight
Opt. Express 25(12) 13010-13023 (2017)
Zewen Li, Xi Wang, Zhonghua Shen, Jian Lu, and Xiaowu Ni
Appl. Opt. 54(3) 378-388 (2015)
Dmitry Reshidko and Jose Sasian
Appl. Opt. 54(28) E216-E223 (2015)